Brad Pitt poses with a group of soldiers during a reception after the Washington premiere of “Fury” at the Newseum on Oct. 15, 2014. (Kris Connor/Getty Images)
Netflix, the global streaming service that brought Washingtonians — er, the world — “House of Cards,” has acquired “War Machine,” starring Hollywood vet Brad Pitt as Gen. Stanley McChrystal. This is a major deal for the former DVD-to-mailbox company that has plunged head first into original and critically-acclaimed programming, according to Deadline.
Originally pegged as a “based on true events”-type drama, “War Machine,” which is based on the 2010 Rolling Stone article “The Runaway General,” is actually a satirical send up of the sausage-making of warfare featuring a fictionalized version of McChrystal, the former commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Remember McChrystal and Co. jokingly referred to themselves as “Team America.”
Pitt, who’ll also wear his producer’s hat on the project, will no doubt have a lot of fun playing “the Boss” and saying things like, “I’d rather have my ass kicked by a roomful of people than go out to this dinner. [dramatic pause] Unfortunately no one in this room could do it.”
It was McChrystal’s colorful candor that cost him his job. Less than two days after the splashy magazine article was published, McChrystal, who openly criticized Vice President Biden (“Who’s that?” the general jokingly asked his Rolling Stone profiler, the late journalist Michael Hastings) was summoned back to Washington and dismissed by the president.
The movie is expected to have an Oscar-qualifying short theatrical run followed by Netflix’s major global release in late 2016.
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